Emergencies are already overflowing

Patients who prolong consultation. The staff was reduced. Access to family clinics is still limited at times. A definite storm hit the emergency rooms of several hospitals.

June 16, 2021 at 5:00 p.m.

Ariane Lacorsier
Tap

During the summer holidays, hospital emergencies in the province are already overflowing. Some companies in Greater Montreal had occupancy rates above 100% on Tuesday.

This includes Royal Victoria Hospital (170%), Pierre-Boucher Hospital (191%), St-Jerome Hospital (172%), Surot Hospital (175%), Mysonev-Rosemont Hospital (148%) and Pierre-Le Gardor Hospital in Longyouil. (147%). Regional hospitals were also under pressure, particularly September-Oles (210%), Hotel-Diu de Lewis (149%), Center Hospital Regional de lanadier (167%) and Hull Hospital (144%).

Although the months of May and June are generally less busy in the province during emergencies, waiting rooms are nowhere to be found, said Dr. John A. Snyder, president of the Association of Emergency Medicine in Quebec.^rGilbert Boucher.

For two weeks our waiting rooms were really packed. When patients ask for help, they come to the emergency room.

The d^rGilbert Boucher, president of the Expert Association of Quebec’s Emergency Experiment

At CISSS de la Monterogi-Est, an affiliate of Pierre-Boucher Hospital, is said to have received “over 195 visits” since Monday, including sick elderly people waiting for a hospital bed.

A “complicated” problem

But even more serious, hospitals are far from regaining their cruising speed despite the epidemic gradually declining. And it has consequences on emergencies. The number of patients arriving by ambulance is not higher than normal. But the capacity to treat these cases is low for hospitals^Back Judy Morris, President of the Quebec Association of Emergency Physicians. She noted that many hospitals are still working with small teams in many departments.

The d^rBoucher noted that there was a shortage of staff everywhere. “The system is stretched. The little jolt we have, it is very difficult for us to get out of it, ”he said.

All of this while we are trying to address the delay in surgery. Those care protocols are still burdened by protective measures against COVID-19. For example, we always avoid grouping more patients in the same room, D observes^BackMorris.

She stressed that summer vacations are well-deserved and have not yet begun in hospitals, so the emergency situation will become more critical in the coming weeks. “Hospitals have to work to the best of their ability. Otherwise, it always suffers from emergencies,” she said.

May and June are usually the busiest months for emergencies. We don’t like the wolf crying. But we are sure to stretch.

The d^rGilbert Boucher

The latter emphasizes that preventive measures against COVID-19 in hospitals are being relaxed as the epidemic situation improves. “We continue to be very vigilant. But it helps us,” he said.

Most pt patients

To extend the problem, most people show up to the emergency room. The d^Back More and more ambulatory patients (self-attending) have been coming to the hospital over the past few weeks, including many who have not been willing to see a doctor for a long time, Morris said. “Our waiting rooms are full.”

Many emergency physicians report that people who do not want to go to the hospital during an epidemic have seen more patients with severe symptoms that have long been ignored.

Photo by Olivier Jean, archives archive

Although the months of May and June are generally less busy with emergencies in the province, waiting rooms do not stop, according to Quebec’s Association of Emergency Medical Specialists.

The doctor said some of these patients also had difficulty accessing their family doctor.^BackMorris. The d^rGilbert Boucher confirms that there are “many clinics that are not yet 100% functional” and that face-to-face visits are limited, converting patients to emergencies.

Last Thursday, Health Assistance Minister D.^BackLucy Opterny sent an order restricting the use of telemedicine for family physicians in the province. This command, first reported Destiny, “Aims to return to face-to-face consultation, reducing the use of teleconsultation to resume clinical activities not considered face-to-face”. Family physicians should therefore limit telecommunications to their registered patients “whose health problem is known and not complicated”. “Ordinary patients or those unfamiliar with the physician have no teleconsultation authority”, the order states.

President of the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ), d^rLouis Godin, family doctor promised to get beacons for teleconsultations. But he believes the order “quickly, despite epidemic problems,” and that doctors’ offices “did not return to their normal functioning”. The d^rGodin cites as an example many clinics that do not have large waiting rooms to ensure a distance of two meters between patients.

For d^rGodin, many patients appreciate teleconferences, which should be, but monitored “according to general reality”. The d^rGodin said patients coming to the emergency room saying they could not see their family doctor was mainly due to the fact that some of their methods of operation were still limited due to measures related to COVID-19. Telemedicine abuse.

Recent data from Reggie de L Assurance Maladi du Quebec (RAMQ) Tap Show that the use of teleconferences by family physicians has been slowly declining, but has been stable in Quebec since January. For d^BackMorris, the reality of emergencies is “complicated.” The significant use of telemedicine does not explain the high occupancy rates currently observed in emergencies.

At the height of the epidemic, in April 2020, 60% of family physicians were consulted by teleconsultation. This ratio is 37% after one year. Among medical professionals, the telecommunication rate fell from 32% in April 2020 to 12% in April 2021.